Vol.:(0123456789)
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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0767-9
ORIGINAL PAPER
Prevalence of Neglected Tropical Diseases (Leishmaniasis
and Lymphatic Filariasis) and Malaria Among a Migrant Labour
Settlement in Kerala, India
Sobha George
1
· Teena Mary Joy
1
· Anil Kumar
2
· K. N. Panicker
1
· Leyanna Susan George
1
· Manu Raj
3
·
K. Leelamoni
1
· Prem Nair
4
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
Neglected tropical diseases (visceral leismaniasis, lymphatic filariasis) and malaria are endemic in northern states of India.
Kerala has become a hub of construction activities employing a large number of migrants from these endemic states. Stud-
ies on morbidity pattern among migrants in Kerala are lacking. It is essential to look into the burden of these infections
among migrant laborers who can act as reservoirs and are a threat to native population. A cross sectional study was done
among migrant laborers in Ernakulam district, Kerala. After getting informed consent, a questionnaire was administered to
each participant to collect sociodemographic details and 5 ml of blood was collected for detection of antigens using rapid
diagnostic tests (RDT). Of the 309 migrants tested, none of them were positive for leishmaniasis, while 3.8% were positive
for malaria and 3.6% for filariasis. With 2.5 million migrant laborers in Kerala, the magnitude of the problem in absolute
numbers is enormous. Active surveillance and treatment is needed to prevent the reemergence of these diseases in Kerala.
Keywords Migrants · Neglected tropical diseases · Kerala · Malaria · Leishmaniasis · Filariasis
Introduction
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group
of communicable diseases that mainly affect people liv-
ing in poverty, without adequate sanitation and in close
contact with infectious vectors. Nearly one billion people
in the world suffer from NTDs, which are referred to as
“neglected” because they are characterized by little atten-
tion from policy-makers, lack of priority within health
strategies, inadequate research and limited resource alloca-
tion [1]. Elimination programs for vector borne disease like
malaria, filaria and leishmaniasis is severely impacted by
migration from endemic areas to the areas that have achieved
control/elimination of these disease like the state of Kerala,
migration from endemic areas to nonendemic areas, trans-
border migration and migration from endemic rural areas to
endemic urban areas [2].
Visceral leismaniasis (VL) is a neglected vector-borne
parasitic disease which is endemic in 88 countries, mostly
least developed in the world. India, Nepal, and Bangladesh
harbour an estimated 67% of the global VL disease burden.
The disease was reported from 52 districts in four states
of India namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal [3].
Globally there are about 120 million people with infec-
tion or lymphatic pathology due to lymphatic filariasis (LF).
India alone bears 40% of the global burden of this disease.
Heavily infected areas in India are found in the states of
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Kerala, Gujarat [4,
5]. The total disability adjusted life years lost in India due
to this disease is around 2.06 million, resulting in an annual
wage loss of US $811 million [6]. The formal goal of the
* Anil Kumar
vanilkumar@aims.amrita.edu
1
Department of Community Medicine, Amrita Institute
of Medical Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
Ponekkara, Kochi, Kerala 682041, India
2
Department of Microbiology, Amrita Institute of Medical
Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Ponekkara, Kochi,
Kerala 682041, India
3
Department of Public Health, Amrita Institute of Medical
Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University,
Ponekkara, Kochi, Kerala 682041, India
4
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita Vishwa
Vidyapeetham, Ponekkara, Kochi, Kerala 682041, India
@Phil_Robichaud
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